Back in the “dark ages” before iPads and digital toys, my parents used to keep my brother and me occupied and out of trouble on long car rides with a magic slate for each of us. For those too young to know, these cardboard toys had a black wax area, covered by a translucent plastic screen. When you drew with the wooden stylus on the screen, against the wax backing, black lines appeared. To erase when you were done, or if you made a mistake, you lifted the screen,and voila, the picture disappeared!

I thought of a magic slate when I awoke this morning, and I began to realize a spiritual principle. We “draw” the story of our lives, and yes, every single one of us makes mistakes along the way. God’s great grace given to us through Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross means we get to “lift the screen” and start fresh, IF and AS we come to Him in genuine repentance, sorry for the mistake we made, the feelings we hurt, the wrong we did, confessing and coming to Jesus for HIS cleansing.

Back in the days of magic slates, all too soon we learned that as we drew, the stylus made a line in the wax backing. Lots of drawing meant lots of gouges in the wax. Eventually all those gouges began to impact your drawing, as the stylus ran over indentation after indentation. The screen may have erased your drawing, but the wax held the image, goofs and all.

Hmmm…. I suspect – no, I KNOW – our minds/memories/spirits are something like the wax backing: we remember all too well the mistakes we’ve made. In one way that’s good, if it teaches us not to repeat the mistake. In another way it’s bad, because the enemy of our mind/heart/spirit LOVES to keep reminding us of our mistakes (lets’call it for what it is: SIN) and pointing out that our “back story” is still very much influencing our life today.

Boy, Abba Father God, You have Your work cut out in reminding us of YOUR Truth: For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord:I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts,and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8: 10-12 ESV

As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. Psalm 103 12 ESV

And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31: 34 ESV

I realized this morning that God doesn’t just “lift our screen” when He forgives our sins: he warms up the wax backing and melts out all of those “grooves” we’ve cut, making our “backing” completely new!And if GOD ALMIGHTY, OLAM EL, EVERLASTING GOD, CREATOR, HOLY RIGHTEOUS ONE, YAHWEH ADONAI doesn’t remember my sins, then why should I listen to that lousy lying accuser of the brethren who wants to keep me focusing on the grooves I cut??!! WHO is the true authority in my life when I’ve come to God through Jesus, the ONE who tells me who I am, the ONE in whom I have my true identity? THE ONE WHO TELLS ME HE’S REMOVED MY SINS AND REMEMBERS THEM NO MORE! But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify[b for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our[c]conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Hebrews 9: 11-14 ESV This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1: 5-9 ESV

So SHUT UP, DEVIL! I am who GOD says I am:

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious,and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and

“A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2: 1-10 ESV

Hear it again: YOU ARE a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1Peter 2: 9

So, my friend, when Jesus is your Lord and Savior, when you come to him acknowledging you’ve sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God and the Word of God, when you say, “God, yes, I blew it,” and receive the atoning sacrifice Jesus made for you, yes YOU, on the cross ages before you were even created, God Almighty says “What sin?” when you come to him with the accuser’s lies or your own conscience accusing you. Believe GOD, NOT the father of lies, – GOD,who not only lifts the screen but makes new the wax underneath! Jesus says yes, YOU belong to the Clean Slate Club!

A “… BUT…” TO PRAY: OH, loving Father GOD, how often I listen to the wrong voice,to the father of lies who keeps running me over the sinful “grooves” I cut in my life, or worse yet, hiding them from me with a “that’s not so bad …. just lift the screen… no one cares …. everybody does that …. ” so I don’t even realize they’re there. BUT you don’t say those evil, twisted things to me. YOU want me and You tell me I stand clean before you because of my repentance and the Blood of Jesus, and yes, it takes both, so I’m choosing today to say NO to the lies and YES to Your Truth about me: God sees me as chosen, his, clean, beloved, ___________________________________________________ I’m believing God! In Jesus’ Name, amen!

I felt so disappointed when I was forced to go to work full-time and couldn’t continue helping with the Women’s Ministry at my church, something I’d done and loved for over ten years at that church and ten years at a prior church. I felt like I’d lost a limb, like a part of my self and heart had been cut out. Sincethen,though, in retrospect and for the past three years in ever-increasing reality, I see that ministry is everywhere a Christian is. Some of my past blog posts have been about God showing up, “connecting the dots” to bring my life and someone else’s alongside each other for a few minutes, months,or years.

Changing direction one morning, walking downhill instead of uphill, I “coincidentally” met a woman, a pastor’s wife, that was truly a God encounter, and now we’ve been friends and helping with the church they’re planting for the past two years. “Coincidentally” the friend of mine who bought the king-size bed I needed to sell and advertised on Facebook put me in contact with people in the company she works for now, and I’ve been able to put stories from my friends in wonderful little devotional gift books. It brings me such joy to share their “God encounter” stories with thousands of people I’ll never meet, bringing them encouragement that God will show up in their lives, too!

Recently I needed to grab a fast dinner down at a mall and then run to Sears to look for a tool for my husband, all to “constructively kill time” while I waited to go back to a friend’s house to hear the youth choir she leads. As I turned down the arm of the mall to head for Sears, a young woman at a skin care kiosk called out to ask me if I’d try a sample. I stopped, we began chatting, and that began a half-hour conversation on Yeshua and why yes, she could still be Jewish (she’s from Israel) and receive him as her Messiah. I told her I’d bring her acopy of my book, but she was surprised the next day when I did. How will God use our meeting? I have no idea. That’s His business; mine was to stop in the mall and share Christ’s love and Word. Yes, this is the second time I’ve shared with transplanted Israeli Jews at kiosks in a mall!

The cashier at the grocery store, passers-by on the walking path, people in parking lots, homeless people in the park …. Truly, ministry is EVERYWHERE, and truly we’re called to be ambassadors for/disciples of Jesus whenever and wherever, however and with whomever the opportunity presents itself – or rather, wherever,whenever, however with whomever God’s Holy Spirit opens a conversational doorway. Did the tragedy in my life that closed the Women’s Ministry door in my life close the door to my ministry? Not by a long shot! Just because you don’t stand behind a pulpit (showing my age) or stand on the platform on Sunday morning, does that mean YOU aren’t called in ministry? NOT BY A LONG SHOT! If you love Jesus and call him your Savior and Lord, YOU ARE CALLED TO MINISTRY in sharing Christ’s love, his tangtible practical help, his encouragement, even his warning if need be, wherever, whenever, however, and with whomever God’s Spirit brings across your path.

NO EXCUSES! You are able to tell anyone what Jesus means to you, what God’s done for you, and your testimony may be the open doorway or signpost to their own walk with the Lord Jesus. Jesus COMMANDS us:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”John 13: 34-35

All the Lord asks is that you show HIS love, however, wherever, whenever, with whomever you can, “And they’ll know we are Christian by our love!” More importantly, they’ll meet Jesus through our love, through YOUR love demonstrated even the next time you step out your door and walk down the street! And you know what? You’ll feel God’s affirmation OF and joy IN you when you do!

A ”… but…” to pray: Father God, I’ve never seen myself as a preacher or a missionary, but that doesn’t matter in showing and sharing YOUR love, so give me the courage and give me the strong nudge, Holy Spirit (because I can be nervous or just plain dense!) to step out in faith and ________________________________ knowing YOU will do andhave the power to do whatever YOU want to do after I step up to YOUR opening, in Jesus Name, amen. Holy Spirit, I’m listening ____________________________________________________________

Once again I have to be amazed that it’s when I’m speaking to a child or a child speaks to me that I recognize a truth about God’s character as our Father. I spent eighty minutes each week in the spring semester at the school where I work tutoring Jacob, whose native language isn’t English, in reading while his classmates have their Spanish lesson. The previous aide in this classroom advised me that the only way she’d been able to get Jacob’s cooperation in reading was to reward him with candy, so I continued her policy when I took over her position and “inherited” Jacob and his reluctance to study.

As we walked down the hallway toward the school library for our last session of the semester, Jacob began complaining that the students in Spanish were having a party that day. “Why don’t I get a treat? They’re getting Popsicles!” he asserted.

Using the “love and logic” approach to discipline, I returned a question. “Jacob, do any of the other students in your class get candy for reading?”

“No.”

“”And what do you say when the other children ask why you got candy and they didn’t when we come back into the classroom?”

Silence and a glare from eyes hooded by his wrinkled brow.

Grudgingly Jacob admitted they didn’t get a candy reward for reading, but he still was incensed at the “unfairness” of his situation. I could see that words alone weren’t going to open his eyes. Jacob resentfully pulled out a chair at the library table and plopped down, his arms folded. I took out the log of our reading sessions and asked him, “Jacob, can you count by two’s to help me count how many pieces of candy you’ve had since we started meeting together?”

“Two, four, six . . . ” he counted as I kept turning pages in our log, “ . . . eighty, eighty-two, oh, eighty-four.” In silence I let that truth seep into his awareness before I asked, “How many treats do you think the other children are getting from the Spanish teacher? Eighty-four?”

“No,” Jacob admitted, and his uncrossed arms showed me he got the message. He sighed heavily as he read the first book, a very easy one he’d read many times before, but then warmed up and spoke with some animation in his voice as we read a story about a silly chicken together.

But even as we read, I was hearing a familiar voice in my heart reciting a story I’d read many times. “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. . . . ‘But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours . . ..’” Luke 15:28, 30-31

I get to live in my Father’s “house” every day, enjoying an intimate relationship with God that is in itself a treat and treasure. Why am I concerned about how other people who “do me dirty” seem to be enjoying today’s “popsicle” when I’ve already inherited assuredly more than eighty-four blessings straight from my Father’s love? How many times has the Spirit of God connected me wonderfully with someone who needed to hear of his love, with someone who had a word straight from God’s heart to mine? Who is richer?

And I – in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness. Psalm 17:15

You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16: 11

I reminded myself of the most well-known and beloved Psalm in the Bible:

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalm 23: 5-6

With an overflowing heart I cried out to the Good Shepherd, “Living in your love is my reward. Bring the lost ones home to know you, too!”

I gave Jacob the rest of the bag of candy to tuck into his backpack and take home. And guess what – the Spanish teacher gave him a Popsicle, too.

But the greater truth is this: neither of us teachers, and none of the rewards we gave, could ever out-give or even begin to compare with the abundant riches of knowing and dwelling in God’s presence daily, the security of his character as a mightily giving Father.

a ” . . . BUT . . .” to move: Father god, I get miffed when I see people who don’t honor you seeming to prosper BUT I rememb

2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.Colossians 4: 2-6 NIV

As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9: 4-5

Twice in as many days, and this isn’t to honor me ,but to brag on God and His timing and open doors, his loving, caring, compassionate heart, and what happens if we’ll just be, as Patsy Clairmont said in the title of her humorous devotional book,”Cracked Pots” who let the Light shine through our humanity. On Tuesday morning at the opening women’s ministry meeting, I hung my purse on a chair, only one woman I didn’t know sitting there , brought back a plate of fruit, and began engaging in conversation with the four other women at the table. Nothing earth-shaking – just friendly conversation. That led to me connecting with Peg. She told me later she was a bit unsure but got the Holy Spirit’s nudge to talk with me. And the result was me being able to drive Peg to the Tuesday night Healing Room at Two Rivers Church, to intercessors who’ve blessed me many times, so she could get some words from the Lord. When I heard the laughter coming from the prayer room, I knew I’d done the right thing, and Peg indeed got her “socks blessed off.” Way to go, Abba God!

Then this morning, for whatever reason, I decided to pop into the grocery store I’d visited on Tuesday to see if any of the reduced price protein drinks were still there. so I pull into a parking lane and wait for the older (says she who is 68!!) woman to walk by before I pull into a spot. She’s getting a cart at the entrance as I walk up, and she motions me to go ahead, but I say,”No, please go ahead.” As she walks in, she jokingly says, “Open sesame!” and I reply, ”Oh, you must be magic !” That silly little exchange opened the door for her to share that she’dpaid a large bill by check, put it in the mailbox, but the letter carrier dropped that envelope, someone picked it up, “washed” the pay to line, and chased her check. Now she was in a tight financial bind. I touched her shoulder and prayed with her for God to bring her vindication, and restitution, and she thanked me and said, “Amen!”

Twice in two days straight, after Carol had shared on Monday about being Holy Spirit-nudged to pray with a woman in the produce section of Wal-Mart, motivated by the lack of plastic bags readily available! And Melanie on Tuesday driving back to give some encouragement and affirmation to a woman she’d passed, standing on the sidewalk, who said thanks after Melanie simply said hello to her! Linda’s had those encounters, and so have Donna, Libby, Lily, the other Carol, Yolanda, Val, Debbie, Julia ……

It ain’t me! It doesn’t just happen to me! It’s God pouring out HIS light, love, encouragement, empathy, compassion, smile, validation, affirmation, acknowledgement to people who need a bit of light, a word of cheer, and breath of hope from The Almighty Himself, just poured out through us “cracked pots”!! All we need to do and be – all YOU need to do and – is available and ”cracked” enough to get over yourself and your insecurity (yes, I get it; me, too!) and start a conversation! I’ve lost track of how many times God has done this through. (See my past post about “Connect the Dots” for a few more).

Oh,Rose and ________________ (fill in your name), why do you ever doubt Jesus loves you?Why do you ever doubt the Holy, Almighty, Creator and King of Kings DOES want to live and love through you,to be a vessel of His Light and Love and Truth and Word on Earth?! Why do you think you’re the power that moves in these Divine encounters? As in the opening words of the book The Purpose-Driven Life, “IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU!”

Soooo …… as Jesus told us, HIS “disciples” meaning “sent ones,” “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9: 4-5 Carry HIS Light! Be that “cracked pot” that God’s Light can shine through. Night IS coming, and we need to get out into the Harvest fields of people all around us and share God’s Love through Jesus, by the Holy Spirit who DOES live in you and me and us who call ourselves Christ Followers, not just Sunday morning pew warmers.

Your”…BUT…”to pray: God, I admit it ,sometimes I’m downright too insecure and chicken and people-pleasing/people-fearing to open my mouth and say hello to someone, much less pray WITH them, BUT YOU ARE ABLE, so help me get over myself and_______________________________________and help me SEE the next open door YOU open in front of me so I can help someone who needs to see and experience YOUR LIGHT of LOVE right then and there. Holy Spirit – gulp – I know YOU will help me, so I ask this in Jesus’ Name, amen!

Yesterday morning the sky was SO blue! Clouds to the north and east and above us, but such intense blue over our heads. Of course, that started a chain of thought in me. How do we humans see color? It’s just energy, frequency of light waves, photons…..Of course, we have receptors in our eyes to take in that energy,but to take in that energy and REGISTER/INTERPRET IT AS COLOR????!!!

Here’s the science of vision, from Wikipedia:The visual system in animals allows individuals to assimilate information from their surroundings. The act of seeing starts when the cornea and then the lens of the eye focuses light from its surroundings onto a light-sensitive membrane in the back of the eye, called the retina. The retina is actually part of the brain that is isolated to serve as a transducer for the conversion of light into neuronal signals. Based on feedback from the visual system, the lens of the eye adjusts its thickness to focus light on the photoreceptive cells of the retina, also known as the rods and cones, which detect the photons of light and respond by producing neural impulses. These signals are processed via complex feedforward and feedback processes by different parts of the brain, from the retina upstream to central ganglia in the brain….

The perception of objects and the totality of the visual scene is accomplished by the visual association cortex. The visual association cortex combines all sensory information perceived by the striate cortex which contains thousands of modules that are part of modular neural networks. The neurons in the striate cortex send axons to the extrastriate cortex, a region in the visual association cortex that surrounds the striate cortex.[1]

The human visual system is generally believed to perceive visible light in the range of wavelengths between 370 and 730 nanometers (0.00000037 to 0.00000073 meters) of the electromagnetic spectrum.[2] However, some research suggests that humans can perceive light in wavelengths down to 340 nanometers (UV-A), especially the young.[3]

Right…. got all that technical terminology? The ONE truth that resonated in my spirit as I beheld that astounding blue – those photons that my cornea, lens, photoreceptive cells of my retina, optic nerve, ganglia and lateral geniculate nucleus and visual cortex received,translated and somehow gave me appreciation for that beauty – is that GOD IS AN INCREDIBLE, WONDROUS, GLORIOUS, KIND, LOVING, AWESOMELY ABLE CREATOR! You can’t tell me that the mammalian eye just somehow evolved over eons from a single-celled glob of slime that “magically”changed over time to become a WALKING, STANDING, SEEING,WARM-BLOODED, CHILDBEARING, COMPASSIONATE, CARING, LOVING, GENEROUSLY GIVING, COMPUTER CREATING COLLECTION OF CELLS WE CALL HOMO SAPIENS!

To believe we came to be by some cosmic accident takes so much more “faith” and “willing suspension of belief”that it’s almost comic to me. I don’t mean to insult evolutionists; I totally agree that adaptations happened and still happen – but the ONE question evolutionists can’t answer is the origin of life from chemicals. Life – even slugs and jellyfish – is something SO MUCH MORE COMPLEX, so much more CREATIVE and AMAZING than an “accidental” perfectly right combination of chemicals that somehow sparked LIFE: the capacity to receive input, interpret it, think, have language to express, wonder, procreate,create, and CARE that I find it incomprehensible that people can’t allow for an INTELLIGENT DESIGNER behind it all. Oh, but that would mean SOMEONE to whom they are now accountable for how they invest, spend, live the life given to them NOT created by them themselves ….

Hmmm….does the real question, then, come down to 1) somehow lacking the spiritual/emotional/relational receptors to perceive the evidence of a loving Creator God or 2) wanting to BE “gods” ourselves so we don’t have to answer to anyone? Hmmmm…..

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.

Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. Job 12: 7-10

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Psalm 91:1

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139: 13-14

….since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became foolsand exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Romans 1: 17-23

Yep, all that from a patch of very blue sky, which just goes to show me that God IS speaking, all the time all around us, if we great and powerful (till our health goes haywire or the banks go under) humans humble ourselves enough to see, listen, and agree. But catch this, too ….God created you to know him and his love, his great, deep desire for relationship with you, yes with YOU! SOLI DEO GLORIA – TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!

A “…but…” to pray: Holy, gracious heavenly Father,Creator God,author of my existence and lover of my soul, I confess that I don’t always listen when you speak o me, and sometimes I dismiss what I do hear and see, BUT you show your mercy to a thousand generations to those who fear (reverence) you, so help me truly experience holy,reverential awe of you and thankfulness that YOU ARE, and because YOU ARE, gratefully, I am. Here’s my confession and my thanks ____________________________________________________________________________________and thank YOU for your forgiveness, gracious unmerited mercy, long-suffering patience, and passionate love!Holy Spirit, I’m listening ___________________________ and in Jesus’ mighty name, amen!

“I see a generational line of pastors and teachers in your family line. I feel a sense of culmination to this point in history, that you are facing a giant, a battle, which has been ordained that you should fight ….” She’d never met me before, had no idea who I am, and yet the words Charity spoke were solid, right on. How could she know there are pastors and preachers in my mother’s mother’s family line, including my great-Uncle, and many before him?

Even with this heritage,though, I know that I know that I know that I can’t call myself Christian because any of my ancestors were.Christianity is not an ethnicity, not an inheritance passed down by your parents. Sitting for decades in church doesn’tmake you Christian any more than sitting weekly in the garage makes you a car or wading in the ocean till you’re pruny makes you a tuna! Christianity, being a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, not just a lip-service pew sitter, comes down to one thing and one thing only: a personal choice to acknowledge that 1)yes, I am a sinner, 2)yes, sin (even one) separates me from relationship with a Holy God, 3) no, I can’t possibly DO anything to merit God’s grace 4) Jesus made the ONe and ONLY fully adequate, fully covering, fully atoning sacrifice of his own life on the cross to pay the Blood price for my forgiveness required by my sins and 5) I have to REPENT AND CHOOSE and daily choose to live in Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for me, receiving God’s unmerited grace, favor, unfathomable mercy, forgiveness and matchless love.

MY SINS – CHRIST’S DEATH ON THE CROSS. What an almost unimaginably priceless, inconceivably costly gift, freely given by Jesus! And all I have to do is agree with God that I’m a sinner in desperate need of His grace to receive it and walk forever, here and in Eternity, in joyful fellowship and relationship with My Righteous Father God Almighty! No, that doesn’ t give me license to keep on willfully sinning. What a slap in the face to Jesus that would be, to think I could presume upon his boundless, pure mercy and live in a way that dishonors, trivializes, and disgraces God’s costly gift to me! I receive his unmerited grace, mercy, forgiveness and love, and out of reverential gratitude and eternal thanks, I choose to live to please, honor, serve and worship God Almighty, helped daily by God’s Holy Spirit present with me.Do I blow it sometimes? Yes, and then I’m right back on my knees confessing, repenting, and staying in relationship with God as his chosen daughter. Yes, God chose every single one of us before the foundations of the Earth, that we should come to know his boundless love and live in fellowship with HIM. And yes, God “recklessly” gave us the freedom to accept His Gift or go our own way, trusting in our own goodness, which God’s Word says is like filthy rags, instead of in the freely given Righteous Blood of Jesus ALONE.

This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Who do YOU choose to worship, choose, revere,love, follow, and trust? Today I quote an entire chapter. These aren’t just my thoughts, but thoughts straight from God’s Holy Spirit, yes through a human being, but not humanly reasoned out! We’d think “religion” is enough. God knows how inadequate anything but the Blood of Jesus truly is (my bold):

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,but a body you prepared for me;6 with burnt offerings and sin offeringsyou were not pleased.7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.’”[a]

8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law.9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.”He sets aside the first to establish the second.10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

16 “This is the covenant I will make with themafter that time, says the Lord.I will put my laws in their hearts,and I will write them on their minds.”[b]

18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

A Call to Persevere in Faith

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[d] and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”[e]31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering.33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.34 You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.37 For,

“In just a little while,he who is coming will comeand will not delay.”[f]

38 And,

“But my righteous[g] one will live by faith.And I take no pleasurein the one who shrinks back.”[h]

39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Hebrews 10 NIV

Who in their right mind would refuse boundless love and grace, freely given, despite their failures, rebellion and weaknesses?

10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me- 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father- and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10: 10-15 NIV

NO “But’s…” about it: not Great Uncle Cyrus, not great-great-grandpa whoever, no building, no just words creed, no mindlessly recited prayers, nothing and NO ONE and NO WAY but Jesus, now and forever, PRICELESS LOVE, amen!